“We have to bring him at the right time for us … And we have to make sure it’s the right time, so when he comes to the big leagues it’s not a situation where we’re questioning whether he should be in the big leagues or not … When it’s time for him to come to the big leagues, he has to be ready to be a big-league player in a lot of different facets of the game.”

I guess Brown has learned a lot in the past 48 hours, because the Phillies just announced that they’re calling him up. Shane Victorino is going on disabled list.

Brown has been absolutely raking down at Lehigh Valley, sporting a line of .341/.431/.537. Meanwhile, the Phillies offense — particularly Raul Ibanez — has been gasping for air.

Is Brown a sure thing? No. He struggled last year in 70 plate appearances following similarly gaudy AAA numbers. But he’s another year older now and clearly has nothing left to prove at the minor league level. If he does have major league flaws, the best way to fix them will be to work through them on the job in the bigs. Besides, he’s 23 now and turns 24 in September. It’s just time for him to be up.

And the fact is, the Phillies need him, and there’s a lot of reason to believe that he can help. That’s good enough for me.

In Brown’s defense of his struggles from last years callup, he didn’t get to play consistently at all. It’s hard enough for Veterans to play like that, much less a rookie. I don’t know if he has what it takes but it’s time to find out. He’s not an 18 year old kid. He’s 23 and has done everything he can at triple-A. Might as well find out if he can sink or swim. Philly is a major east coast market so he’s always going to have to deal with the pressure to succeed. In the end, can he do any worse than either Ibanez or Francisco? That’s my only hope is that he’s coming to start permanently. Sure he will likely struggle for a while but maybe by september he has picker up a thing or two and can contribute. A youth infusion can’t hurt this old looking team.

Ohh no….. It appears that the phillies have also called up David Herndon. My elation at Brown’s callup has been replaced by me vomiting on my laptop. I will give Herndon credit for his consistency. Both left handed and right handed batters hit close to .350 against him last season and this season they are still hitting well above .300 against him. To top it off there’s nothing worse than watching a guy get his head beat in while he has an arrogant smirk on his face. Blahhh…

Brown is surrounded by big bats and that takes some pressure off. He’s got as high of a ceiling as any prospect and last year’s cup of coffee doesn’t mean anything – he will work himself into the lineup by proving to be indispensible and far more exciting than the placeholders the Phils have in the OF right now (except for Victorino),

This is no knock on Brown, but you’re kind of overstating things as I don’t think there are a lot of people out there that think he has the same ceiling as Harper. That being said, I completely agree that 70 ABs as a part-timer means very little.

Not sure why Ibanez was singled out. This will sound odd, but outside the 0-35 he has hit decently. The real culprit in the outfield has been Ben Francisco, who has been consistently awful since the first week.

SeattleJ: Harper is the next big thing no doubt; his odds of playing in 2011 are slim however. I guess I should have specified: prospects who can contribute this year.
And Ben Francisco was a backup OF with Cleveland – nuff said